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My earlier post on the Local Max really hit a chord, which I figured it would, because it woke me up in the middle of the night…

The obvious question, after you’ve had the conversation with your team about B, C and the pain of getting to Big Max is this, "How do we get to work to find the really big thing?"

The good news is that the new marketing makes it easier than ever before.

The cost of inventing, prototyping, manufacturing and especially advertising a new thing, concept, service or organization is a tiny fraction of what it used to be. In some industries, you can do it for 1% of what it used to cost.

Sooner or later, your team needs to embrace this fact.

What this means is simple… you can take the cash and the momentum you get from being at Local Max and invest a fraction of it to let a new team, a smaller team, a team without traditional constraints to go ahead and launch something new. Something that disrupts the market, that even competes with the mother ship.

And if it’s your career we’re talking about, the same thing is true. You don’t have to get a formal MBA or quit your job to start a profitable business or sideline. You can leverage the amazing tools that exist without having to wager everything.

There are two mistakes that satisfied Local Max folks make:1. believing that they can get to the next Max in a linear, pain-free wayand2. believing that the best way to get there is with brute force. More products more salespeople more ads more buildings more staff…

In fact, the opposite is true.

The more you help your little team, the harder it will be for them to find the new Max.

The bet isn’t the scary one that involves all your money or your full-time job. The bet is the scary one that involves intellectual risks and going way outside your safety zone to see what happens when you disrupt the status quo.